Finmeccanica have reported on their financial year to 31 December 2015, and as part of the announcement will put a proposal to the shareholders to change the company name to Leonardo.  From the helicopter industry point of view, this comes less than three months after AgustaWestland officially became “Finmeccanica, Helicopters Division”.  The press release follows:-

Summary

• EBITDA amounted to EUR 1.9 billion, + 19% compared to 2014, EBITA of 1,208 million euro, + 23% compared to 2014, and EBIT to 884 million euro, + 48% over the previous year
• positive Net Result of € 527 million, 26 times higher compared to 20 million in 2014. Net Income Ordinary positive for 253 million euro, 17 times higher than the 15 million in 2014
• FOCF to 307 million euro, + 372% compared to 65 million in 2014
• Group debt amounted to 3.278 billion euro, -17% compared to 3.962 million in 2014. Shareholders’ Equity 4,302 million euro + 12% compared to 3.854 billion in 2014 and debt-to-equity ratio fell to 0.76 from the previous 1.03 2014
• For 2016 will be a further growth in profitability and cash flow generation, which will reduce the debt to about 3 billion Euros, anticipating by one year the goal
• Proposal to the shareholders to change the company name to Leonardo

The Finmeccanica Board of Directors, which met today under the chairmanship of Gianni De Gennaro, examined and unanimously approved the draft financial statements and the consolidated financial statements at 31 December 2015. The 2015 was a turning point for Finmeccanica, both from a strategic and organizational point of view and in terms of economic and financial, with the full achievement of the first challenging objectives in the business plan in January 2015, among which it highlights the sales in the Transport (Ansaldo Breda and the stake in Ansaldo STS), the adoption of the new operating model and organizational with the launch of the “One Company” and achieving results in strong growth and better than expected. the different initiatives move towards the goal of reviewing the positioning of the Group in terms of business areas and product portfolio, define and implement a new operational governance model and to pursue appropriate actions to improve efficiency, restructuring and development, in a different relationship with the market characterized by greater selectivity of acquired contracts which, together with the improvement of industrial performance, ensures a growing solidity and quality of the backlog. All this is part of the Group’s strategy to focus on a business structure, Defence and Security more concentrated, but able to ensure adequate levels of profitability and cash generation. 

The 2015 results confirm the significant improvement of the Group under the economic and financial profile over the previous year, in line with what was already mentioned in 3 quarters. In particular, Finmeccanica has recorded significant growth in 2015 in terms of profitability, an increase in the level of EBITDA by 19% compared to 2014, of 23% EBITA of 48% EBIT.The Ordinary Net Income, by eliminating the result from the gain recognized on the sale in the transport sector, it is 17 times higher than that of 2014 (€ mil. 253, compared with € mil. 15 in 2014). The increase is even more significant at the net result level (inclusive of the gain), which is equal to 26 times the profit of 2014, rising from € mil. 20 to € mil. 527.

Similarly, the free operating cash flow reached 307 million euro, compared to a value of 2014 amounted to € mil. 65, an increase of 372%, helping to reduce the Group’s debt at 3.278 billion (down by 17% compared to the end of 2014), thanks to the successful conclusion of sales transactions in the transport sector, which generated revenues total profit of EUR 790 million, of which EUR 761 million for the sale of shares Ansaldo STS and Euro 68 million on the sale of real estate properties of FGS complex, compared with a loss of Euro 38 million for the branch Ansaldo Breda. 

Consequently, the debt-to-equity fell to 0.76. In detail, the results for 2015, which does not include the contribution of the transport sector assets sold to Hitachi and separately classified as a discontinued operation, highlight: 

• Orders : amounted to 12.371 billion euro, slightly lower to 2014. This affects the level of the orders even the most rigorous selection of business opportunities aimed at building a more profitable order book (margins). It also records the decline of Helicopters (also for the Oil & Gas) and Air Force (postponement of certain contracts by the Italian military customer), offset by the performance of Electronics for Defence and Security and by the favorable impact of foreign exchange. 
• order backlog totaled EUR 28.793 million euro, with growing strength as a result of more rigorous selection of the acquired contracts, assures it of a cover of around two and a half years of production.
• Revenues totaled EUR 12.995 million euro, + 1.8% compared to 2014 due to the favorable exchange rates. 
• EBITDA : profit of 1,866 million euro, an increase of 18.9% compared to the 1,569 million of 2014. EBITDA margin, to 14.4 % it ​​showed an increase of 210 bp compared to 12.3% in 2014. 
• EBITA : profit of 1,208 million euro, a strong growth (+ 23.3%) compared to 980 million in 2014, which included charges of approximately $ mil. 100, relating to a specific program of DRS. However, even excluding this effect, there was a significant improvement supported by the benefits associated with plans to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The EBITA margin was 9.3%, an increase of 160 bp. •  EBIT : profit of 884 million euro, + 48.1% compared to 597 million in 2014. 
• Net Ordinary Result : positive for 253 million euro, 17 times higher than the 15 million positive in 2014. 
• net result: profit of 527 million euro , 26 times higher than the 20 million positive in 2014. 
• Group net debt stood at EUR 3.278 billion of euro , an improvement of 684 million (17%), compared with EUR 3.962 billion at December 31, 2014 due to the completion of the sale in the Division of Transportation and despite the effect of foreign exchange losses on debt denominated in GBP and $. 
• Net Assets : totaled 4,302 million euro, 448 million higher (+ 11.6%) to 3.854 million at the end of 2014. Consequently, the debt-to-equity ratio stood at 0.76 compared to a value of 1.03 in 2014. 
• Free Operating Cash Flow (FOCF) : positive for 307 million euro, an improvement of 242 million (+ 372.3%) compared to the 2014 positive 65 million.

See full report – in Italian – here